Vampires 101 (Twilight Hunters Book 1) A Vampire Romance (15 page)

I started moving again.

“Why did you do that?” Chaz was clearly confused.

“I thought I heard someone walking, but I think it was just you,” I explained.

Chaz shook his head. “When you see me walking, it is just something I’m projecting into your mind. There is no sound involved … unless I do it on purpose. It is possible to manifest physically, but it isn’t easy to do.”

I almost wished he’d kept that little bit of information to himself. Now I was going to have to face the fact that I’d heard footsteps that didn’t belong to either of us. We were being followed.

“Ok … it’s time to run!” I sprinted ahead. It kind of irked me that I was the only one that was actually going to have to run. At that moment, I envied Chaz. Of course I didn’t envy the dead part. Travel at the speed of thought might be cool, if you didn’t have to be dead to do it.

By the time I reached the tomb I was gasping for air. There was simply no more denying it. I was out of shape.

Spinning around, I peered into the darkness to see if I’d been followed. No one was in sight. It was possible I’d imagined the footsteps, but I wasn’t about to take chances.

Chaz was waiting near the door of the tomb. It stood open just a crack.

“How did you get that open?” I asked, still panting from my marathon run.

“I didn’t. It was already open.”

Ok, that didn’t sound good.

Since we’d already come this far, I couldn’t see turning back now. I stepped forward and pulled the door open just wide enough to slip inside. As an afterthought, I pulled it shut behind me, leaving it cracked just a little. Someone would have to come right up to the tomb before they’d notice it was open.

The urn was still to the side of the tunnel entrance. No one had slid it back into place. I figured that if Shadow had left the tunnels, she’d have slid the urn back over the tunnel entrance.

Once again, I let my hand fall to the gun at my side. I needed another confidence boost. Taking a deep breath, I switched on the flashlight and started down the stone steps and into the darkness. When I reached the bottom of the steps, I pointed the flashlight in both directions, trying to decide which way I should go.

“Which way do you think she went?” I asked Chaz, who was now hovering beside me.

“She was going that way last time we saw her,” he said, pointing in the direction that we’d seen the animal corpses.

Well it was as good a place as any to start. When I walked by the pile of dead animals, I averted my eyes. I’d already seen it once, and had no desire to look at the macabre scene again.

I felt as if I’d been walking miles, but so far had found nothing of interest. That is except for the dead animals, which didn’t really count, given that we’d found those on the last trip into the tunnels.

“Maybe there’s nothing down here,” I whispered to Chaz.

“I told you.”

“Yeah but she couldn’t have disappeared into thin air,” I insisted.

“Could be she decided to go hang out with some fellow vamps.” Chaz’s voice seemed hollow and weak.

I shifted my eyes sideward at Chaz. Not only was his voice weak, but his imaged was fading in and out.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

He shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m losing energy. It’s like there are others down here sapping up all the energy.”

Now that he mentioned it, I also felt a little weak myself. My thoughts immediately went to who the
others
might be. I assumed he must mean other spirits, but before I could question him further about these
others
, he completely blinked out.

“Chaz … you still here?” My voice echoed through the empty tunnel. When the sound faded, all I could hear was the steady - hollow noise of water dripping somewhere beyond my vision.

I was alone, but I didn’t feel alone. No matter how I tried to ignore it, I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was hiding in the shadows - watching me. I kept moving, but every few minutes I would steal a peek over my shoulder, expecting to see someone there.

I was moving south, which I knew would eventually lead to the tunnels below the Pine View Business District. The first evidence of this was when the tunnel came to an abrupt halt, blocked by a red brick wall and a large wooden door. Grabbing the tarnished brass handle, I pulled on the door. I fully expected it to be locked, but to my surprise the door opened easily.

Stepping through the doorway, I entered what appeared to be a basement. Directly in front of me, was a large boiler that had probably been used as a source of heat during an earlier era.

Thick cobwebs hung from the ceiling and walls. Calculating how far I’d walked, I guessed that I must be below the Junction Hotel. I wasn’t too surprised when the tinkling sound of piano music reached my ears. The hotel had a dance club on the main floor.

It wasn’t until I realized that the music seemed a little out of place that I started to worry. The music I was hearing came from another time – an age of gaiety and excess. I could almost picture a sultry beauty from the 1920s, reclined on the piano as the musician’s fingers danced across the keys.

She was wearing a silver dress that came to just below her knees. That particular style of dress was popular for the era. I could remember seeing a photo of my great grandmother in a similar dress, but without all the embellishments. My grandmother wouldn’t have been caught dead in such an establishment, but this woman was a performer - a pretty face to draw in the crowds.

The contrast of her bright auburn hair and shiny red lipstick against pale skin was startling, but appealing. Her lips were moving; I could faintly hear her smooth voice as she sang of heartbreak and love.

Abruptly, I realized that I was no longer just bringing up the images in my mind. What I was seeing was real, and it was all around me. I was still in the basement of the Junction Hotel, but now all the cobwebs were gone. There were people sitting around the numerous tables scattered about the large room. Those that were not occupied with gambling games, had their eyes glued to the stage. That is where the shiny black piano stood. The scent of alcohol was strong, which was completely out of place, considering the time I was seeing had to be during the Prohibition period.

I didn’t have to be a genius to figure out that I was seeing a scene from one of the gambling dens rumored to have been below Pine View during the 1920s, but why was I seeing it?

The vision had a surreal - dreamlike quality to it, but was still real enough that I was sure if I reached out to touch the furniture - the people, they would be solid. Suddenly the scene changed. The music was gone, as were all the people, except for the woman. She sat in a chair, her forehead resting against the dark - grainy wood of the table.

I could feel her despair - and her conviction that her life was over. Though I couldn’t read her thoughts, I could feel her emotions. She was sad, but I could also feel a lot of fear and uncertainty.

The sound of footsteps caught my attention. Someone was coming down the steep staircase from the hotel’s main level. With each heavy step that fell on the wooden stairs, there was an increasing sense of foreboding.

I wanted to yell at the woman to run, but the words wouldn’t form on my tongue. Even if I had been able to say something, it probably wouldn’t have made any difference. It was like watching a movie - I could see what was happening, but was unable to participate in any way.

The woman lifted her head from the table and looked anxiously toward the staircase. A man wearing a dark overcoat and black hat stepped out of the shadows.

The woman jumped to her feet. “Oh Jeffery! I didn’t think you were coming.”

“I’m sorry Liv … but you can’t have that baby,” he whispered.

Now I could see that he was holding some kind of leather belt in front of him, stretched between both hands. His intent was evident.

The woman’s soft features twisted with terror. “Nooo … you don’t have to do this Jeffery, she cried, backing away from the man. “I could go away. No one needs to know.”

He shook his head. “You would just keep showing up like a bad dream.”

Knowing that her fate was sealed, she began screaming, but not for long. The man cut off her screams by wrapping the belt around her neck and squeezing. She fought back, trying to claw at his face, but her struggles were futile. He was too strong.

A moment later, I heard the sickening sound of bones snapping, and then her body went limp. He grabbed her by one arm and began dragging her across the floor like a rag doll. They disappeared into the murky darkness behind the staircase.

I heard a door open and then more dragging noises, though the sound seemed a lot further away now.

Before I could blink, the scene was gone. I was back in the dusty basement with only the beam of my flashlight to cut through the dark. Still reeling from the experience, I felt almost too disoriented to go on. I might have turned back then, if my curiosity hadn’t got the best of me.

Curiosity killed the cat.

In my head I heard Gram voicing that same silly warning I’d heard dozens of times growing up. Just like it hadn’t stopped me then, it wasn’t going to stop me now. I had to know what was behind that door.

I headed in the direction I’d seen them disappear, carefully stepping around the boxes of junk that had been stacked in random locations throughout the basement. Sure enough, there was another door hidden behind the staircase. The door was probably just one of several exits into the tunnels. This one was located on the east side of the building, but there was probably one to the south that would lead to another underground room. According to legend, the entire business district was riddled with underground rooms that were connected by tunnels.

Pine View had been one of the rowdiest places in the Old West, and that hadn’t changed much in the 20th century. Not even during Prohibition. The Mafia had taken over many of the vices that had suddenly become illegal. In little cities like Pine View, they went underground, literally.

After pulling the door open, I pointed the flashlight into another long - dark tunnel. Though this tunnel seemed larger than the one I’d just left, it had an ominous feel about it that sent a shiver running down my back. I felt a chill in the air that hadn’t been there before.

Although I knew Chaz wouldn’t be much help when it came to fighting off killers, or other types of monsters, I still wished he were with me. If nothing else, at least I’d have some company.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped through the doorway and into the tunnel. I’d already come this far, it seemed stupid not to continue, especially considering the fact that I still didn’t have a clue what happened to Shadow.

I’d gone a couple hundred yards before coming on an area of loose dirt in the earth floor. I might never have noticed it if it weren’t for the light reflecting off the silver threads that had escaped the soil.

With one foot, I started kicking dirt away. I found more silver threads and patches of rotting fabric. Even before I unearthed the skull, I knew I’d just found the woman’s body.

Though it was covered with a layer of black dirt, there was no mistaking the grinning skull for anything but human.

Hadn’t the man called her Liv? And wasn’t Liv short for Olivia?

While in high school, I’d been researching the history of Pine View for a school project and came across a story about a woman named Olivia Swanson. She’d been a singer and dancer, with big dreams of going out west to Hollywood. Motion pictures were just starting to make it big, and she’d wanted to be part of that. But in 1928 Olivia Swanson disappeared from the Junction Hotel and was never seen or heard from again.

Most folks in town thought she’d just found her opportunity to flee to California and took it, but there were a few that believed the woman never left the Junction Hotel. Sadness enveloped me like a thick blanket of fog.

It was far more romantic to think that Olivia Swanson escaped to the glittering life of a Hollywood starlet, but her fate had been much darker. The case of the beautiful Olivia would turn out to be another stain on the already shady history of Pine View. I wondered who her killer was.

Jeffery. That’s the name she’d spoken.

Though her killer was probably long dead by now, I had a feeling that Olivia Swanson’s soul would not move on until the truth was known, and she’d had a proper burial. I could add that job to my growing list of bizarre tasks that I needed to take care of.

Reluctantly, I continued on, leaving Olivia’s remains where I’d found them. Now I had two bodies I’d have to report to the police. At least I knew whom this body belonged to, but I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to explain to the police how I knew.

It had been an interesting night so far, but I was starting to get nervous. I still hadn’t found any sign of Shadow.

The tunnel changed again. It was bigger, and now even the floor was constructed of concrete. This struck me as strange. The further the tunnel moved from the center of the city, the smaller it should have been. But that wasn’t the case at all. It was larger, and far more sophisticated than the tunnels I’d just came through.